Of late, mostly I'm focused on building my guitar teaching side-gig and gaming and painting have taken a back seat, as a result.
I've barely applied paint to a figure - I have three Necrons and two scarab bases about 80% finished, I just need to set aside the time. I have played a few quick games here and there mostly to try things out - a couple of games with my 54mm WWII British paras and Matchbox Germans, one with my brick WWII minifigures (a Disposable Heroes / Coffin for Seven Brothers-ish game), and a small (literally) sci-fi game using ten 15mm figures I brought with me on vacation last week.
"Research", such as it is, never stops, however.
Recently I read She and The Land that Time Forgot (actually, all three books in that series in a single bound volume), and I just finished At the Earth's Core (I've ordered books two and three in that series).
Currently I'm reading Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, and a little more on topic, Henry Hyde's Wargaming Campaigns (which was on sale for $4.99 USD for the Kindle version a bit ago and I grabbed it.).
The latter, combined with some recent downsizing of my collections, has inadvertently lead to the creation of a campaign idea: North Pole '42
Briefly, because I haven't fleshed it out more than this, the British fascist industrialist, Sir Topham Hat, has partnered with Hitler to find and capture Santa's workshop / castle. Through means I haven't decided yet (it doesn't really matter), they have identified the hidden island in the region of the North Pole that is home to Christmas magic.
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| Map created in Google Draw. |
The map may be tweaked a bit but it's usable for my purposes as is.
If I had to say, I'd say 5 miles per hex (hmm, that might be a bit much) but it's not really a map campaign as far as I have thought so far - more of a narrative campaign and I just wanted to make a map. The whole point is to use my Christmas figures year round, and to push me to ordering a block of clay so I can make some additional woodland creatures to fight Nazis.
Allied support, when it arrives, will be provided by British paratroops (Trixie the Elf has some friends in MI6) with Winter Warlock and King Moonracer allowing the British planes to fly over the island (for some reason, they can't prevent landings by sea - although I just had inspiration that maybe magic narwhals might have something to say about that).
I'm not sure when the whole thing will kick off - I'm simultaneously building up my fantasy world background and map so that I can generate backgrounds for those battles as well.
I can second that putting wargaming and model-building in the 'back-seat' for a while due to other tasks and obligations, but now slowly getting back to it again.
ReplyDeleteI've also done some 'researc' as I've recently read the 'Operation Market Garden - book' by Anthony Beevor. One of my favourite authors. It was a really good book, and he manages to catch those small stories and details in the big conflict. It really inspires to make own scenarios.
I'm looking forward to follow your way into winter warfare gaming.
- And please share your link to your guitar-site when it's ready. When times allow I try to play some easy grips on my aging el-guitar. I'm still in learning mode, so a teaching site would be great.
Thanks, Roger! I have added the Beevor book to my to read list. I've been looking for something just like and a quick read of the sample confirmed it.
DeleteI teach live one-on-one private lessons over a service like Zoom, but designed for music lessons, so I don't really have any online course material (I do have some videos on YouTube for some specific songs): but my site is jyguitarstudio.com
I've done this with students afar afield as England and it works quite well.
If you're not looking for ongoing lessons, I'm happy to offer a fellow wargamer a complimentary 60-minute "check in" and help you progress in any way I can. Just sign up for a spot at the following link, if any days/times work for you: jyguitarstudio.com/free-trial-lesson (it should automatically detect your timezone, but if not, you can change it- there's a drop down).
Cheers!
Thank you very much for your offer John. I really appreciate it!!
DeleteI play mostly 'wargames' over guitar these days, so what you have already posted on YouTube are things I'm usually looking for. I'm really 'slow' playing guitar so when I can pause, rewind and do everything in my own speed I can hang on to the lesson. Great songs you've chosen there too!
I when you mentioned timezones, I don't know why, but I've got an impression that you were located just an hour after my TZ. Now I see you're located on another continent and about 9 hours or so between us...
Again, I really appreciate your offer. I want to try out your YouTube-lessons first ;-)
If you like military history, you'll probably like the books of Anthony Beevor. When I read my first ('Berlin the Downfall') I was hooked and read several others of his books on different WW2 battles. Arnhem was a really good one, and full of the small stories and details characteristic for his books. After finishing this book I immediately had to see the movie 'A bridge too far' again.
I hope your planned Allied airborne support are more lucky than those in Arnhem, and they didn't go a 'Pole too far'. Looking forward to read more about your project.
Make sure you download the tabs (the link is in the video descriptions). One criticism on the Alice video and especially on the Nine While Nine video is that I went too fast. If anything isn't clear, please let me know!
DeleteWill do. Thanks!!
Delete"North Pole '42" sounds like a lot of fun John! You can never have enough Christmas Fun, and getting to use all of your excellent figures again is a definite plus!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brad! They are some of my favorite figures and it seems a shame they sit in storage year round. I'll be setting the campaign in early '42 (to coincide with the first deployment of British paras).
DeleteI'm trying to refrain from adding to the collection but suddenly I find myself *needing* an ice dragon!
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ReplyDeleteI'd love to see wargames based on those books you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteAs would I! I've been reading them for inspiration and to "fill the well" as I've heard the process described for giving your brain materials to work with when it comes to creating. I don't have plans for such as yet, but I could easily imagine doing them - particularly the Tarzan books as there are Tarzan figures in multiple scales.
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